


How to Save the World at Christmas

by Trista_zevkia



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Superman Returns (2006), Superman/Batman (Comics)
Genre: M/M, POV Outsider, Yule, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-08
Updated: 2012-12-08
Packaged: 2017-11-20 14:59:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trista_zevkia/pseuds/Trista_zevkia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Fox needs Brucie to settle down. Perry White needs Kent to stop mooning over Lois. What are two cagey men to do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Save the World at Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted at World's Finest and my LJ.

“Kent! Are you listening?” Perry’s patented shout, guaranteed to awake and irritate any reporter in a two mile radius only just penetrated said reporter’s glazed look.

“Yes, chief, I’m listening.” Clark pried his eyes off of Lois to answer. 

“I’m thrilled. So go out and get the story!” The attempt at sarcasm was lost in the shout that people expected of their chief. The crowd of reporters turned to go, trying to escape with their eardrums intact. Perry couldn’t have that, could he? “And don’t call me chief!” 

Now the reporters left while rubbing at their ears and risking glares at their chief. Perry glared at his computer screen, or tried to anyway, but his gaze was pulled back to Clark. Perry had his own issues with Lois marrying into his family, mainly about how he could barely restrain her now. Clark looked like the rock on her hand was making him sick, like Superman and kryptonite. Perry jerked his mind away from that line of thinking, because only trouble followed it. 

He’d been a fantastic investigative reporter before he’d been promoted to editing, so he wasn’t a clueless as people thought. Clark disappeared more than any other reporter, but most of them didn’t leave by the roof. Clark spent almost as much time hanging out on the roof as his doppelganger in blue spandex. Clark could also spend a staff meeting gazing at Lois like a kicked puppy, and then recite the contents of the meeting verbatim. Though, if Clark was more than a Superman look alike, Perry would obligated to report on that. As such, Clark was not Superman. Black hair and otherworldly blue eyes was just a genetic trait they had in common, though Perry couldn’t think of too many people with that combination. 

“Chief, you’ll never guess who I just saw coming in the building!” Jimmy was almost panting with excitement. It was irritating, but in a way, Perry hoped Jimmy would never lose that enthusiasm. 

“A real chief so you’ll stop calling me that?” 

“What? No, Bruce Wayne!” 

“Calm down, he’s just the owner of the paper.” Perry tossed out, pretending nonchalance. 

The owner of something losing money, which could fire them all at the drop of a stock. Nothing to worry about here, folks. Who, when he stepped into the office, Perry noticed had blue eyes, black hair and a habit for making people pay attention. Just enough like Lois to make Clark happy, if Clark could get over the whole ‘male’ thing Bruce had going for him. 

“Perry, how are things with my favorite paper?” 

“Great, Mr. Wayne, and getting better with each of your visits.” Perry had never claimed to be above brownnosing, but that didn’t mean he liked it. “What can we help you with?” 

“Nothing special. I was just in town on some pleasure and thought I’d do some business too.” Bruce laughed, and Perry reconsidered. 

Did he really think a guy so similar to Superman could go for this guy? If rumors were to be believed, Bruce was at least good for some rebound sex. “Mr. Wayne, would you like to meet the new people?” 

“Sure! And say hi to some familiar faces.” 

“I’ll just grab you a tour guide.” Looking out the glass wall of his office, Perry saw Clark was sitting at his desk, hands resting on the keyboard as he stared at Lois. “Kent!” 

The bellow caused Clark to start guiltily, and Bruce jerked like a boxer at the bell. Bruce relaxed quickly, and turned a smile on Clark. 

“Kent, introduce Mr. Wayne to his new hires.” A friendly shoo gesture, and Perry watched them walk out of his office. 

Perry pulled up some information on his computer. He knew it would take more than playing tour guide to get Clark to have rebound sex. Bruce didn’t even need to know a person’s name, but Clark wasn’t like that. Neither was Superman, who managed to pull off a sex god image without the matching reputation. He’d really have to ask Clark why that outfit was so tight, with the underwear on the outside. Because Clark could speculate like anybody else, not because Clark had a mysterious connection with Superman or anything. Perry would have to put some thought into this, and probably call in a few favors at the _Gotham Gazette_. 

sB _Sb_ Bs

“Mr. Fox, you wanted me to notify you when Mr. Wayne showed up?” 

Lucius rolled his eyes at the intercom speaker. He hated the statement/question that had just come through. It was indicative of the passive/aggressive nature of his new secretary. Why did Mrs. Miller have to retire? She was only 68. 

“Thank you, Miss Kean.” Gathering a few files, Lucius went to talk to Bruce. 

Miss Kean frowned at him when he walked by, still disappointed she wasn’t working for Mr. Wayne. So many of the secretaries still thought Bruce would take one look at their cleavage and whisk them away to his world of privilege. As such, they were resentful of spending their youth on the less rich and already married men and women of the firm. W.E. would be a lot more productive if Bruce was dating anyone regularly. 

Or seen as gay, Lucius thought as he got on the elevator with Sean Cassidy. Sean was one of the most professional guys in W.E., but flamboyantly out of the closet when off work. Bruce wouldn’t date so close to the sexual harassment line, nor did Lucius think flamboyant would work with Bruce. As much as he claimed to love the spotlight, Lucius knew Bruce held more respect for the darkness. Nameless, formless respect that in no way indicated that Bruce knew anything about a so called creature of the night like Batman, or so Lucius would say to anybody who asked him. 

So Sean was out of the running for a long term relationship with Bruce. Lucius thought about the men he knew, not even sure when he decided that Bruce would serve the company best by being in a long term, committed, gay relationship. The vibration in his pocket got his attention, and Lucius answered his phone just outside Bruce’s office suite. “Hello?” 

“Mr. Fox, this is Perry White.” 

“Hello Mr. White. Is there an issue at our Metropolis acquisition?” 

“No, _Daily Planet_ is fine. I’m doing a favor for the _Gotham Gazette_.” 

“You are?” Lucius was careful to keep the surprise out of his voice. He didn’t hang out with Mr. White much, but knew a man who kept careful track of favors when he saw one. Something about birds of a feather, Lucius supposed. 

“I sure am. The _Gazette’s_ society reporter, Isabelle, is out on maternity leave for six weeks. I’ve sent Clark Kent to take her place. I’d like it if he didn’t lose his edge as a features reporter while he was there, though.” 

“So you want me to do you a favor?” Lucius asked, skeptical eyebrow in place. 

“Well, Kent’s an employee of W.E., but Wayne did say we were supposed to treat him as we would anybody else. Not that I’m saying Wayne needs investigating, but I’d like for Clark to spend some time with him.” 

“I can give you Mr. Wayne’s scheduling secretary.” 

“Lucius, don’t play dumb on me.” Perry sighed heavily on the phone and Lucius allowed himself a tiny smile. “Clark has just come off a bad breakup, and I’d like for him to spend some time with Brucie, and his reputation as a seducer of anything that moves.” 

Lucius didn’t respond right away, thinking about that and how neatly it fit into his own idea. The newspaper in another city was autonomous in many ways, and well beyond the sexual harassment line Lucius had been worried about a moment ago. Sighing heavily, Lucius responded. “All right, I’ll try it. I’ll need whatever info you’ve got about Clark and his favorites. You know, foods and date activities.” 

“I’ll email you that, just after I talk to the person he broke up with.” Perry responded eagerly, attempting to get off the phone quickly. 

“You’ll owe me one, Mr. White.” Lucius grinned, knowing that was what Perry didn’t want to hear. The press had to be managed to be an effective tool. 

“Yes, I will, Mr. Fox.” Perry added with a sigh. “I’ll get that info to you.” 

Perry hung up, and Lucius went into his meeting with Bruce with a grin on his face. 

sB _Sb_ Bs

“Mr. Fox, your five o’clock appointment is here.” Miss Kean’s professional voice and efficient statement was a tribute to how she thought she should be able to leave at five pm exactly. 

“Show him in, Miss Kean, and you may go.” Lucius was happy to reward efficiency, he just hoped she saw it that way and learned from it. 

She escorted in Mr. Kent, letting Lucius have a good look at the man. At first glance, nothing like Bruce. Hunched shoulders and a shuffling walk, depreciating grin and thick glasses. What were the odds that Kent’s persona was just as much an act as Brucie was? Or wasn’t, because Bruce had nothing to hide, nothing at all. 

“Mr. Kent, welcome to Gotham.” Lucius smiled as he shook the man’s hand, and ignored his secretary fleeing from her job that required actual work. 

“Glad to be here, Mr. Fox.” Kent smiled as he shook Lucius hand. “Though I will admit to confusion. Nobody at the _Gotham Gazette_ was able to tell me why the interim society reporter had a meeting with you.” 

“There was a communication a while back about following Bruce for a few weeks, just to see what his life was like. We all figured a married and pregnant lady would be able to observe without, shall we say, being made a part of the story. The timing didn’t work out though, and you’ve got stuck with it.” Lucius smiled, even as he wondered about the look Kent was giving him. 

“Did Bruce agree to being followed for weeks?” 

“Well, not exactly.” Lucius prevaricated a little, having hoped this question wouldn’t get asked. Strange to ask it, actually, when common knowledge held Brucie to be a publicity hound who would jump at the chance. “The board decided on it, for publicity reasons. You have to convince Bruce to let you talk to him.” 

Something very close to panic went across Kent’s face at that, so Lucius hurried on. 

“I have provided a list of topics to help.” Picking up a file he’d readied for this meeting, Lucius handed it over. Kent took it, but was too shocked to glance inside. “Upcoming charity events for the holiday season, some product launches for Christmas, that kind of thing.” 

“Wouldn’t you rather wait for the regular columnist to come back?” 

“It’s not as bad as all that Mr. Kent; fancy parties, beautiful people, free food and an open bar.” Lucius said, figuring it was better than asking why Kent looked like someone had just run over his dog. “I understand you’re from Metropolis, so this will let you met lots of new people while you’re in Gotham.” 

“I think I might need to clear this with my editor, from the _Planet_.” 

“Perry signed off on it. We talked about it as soon as I found out Isabelle was taking her leave.” 

“Oh.” 

“It really is a plum assignment, Mr. Kent.” 

“Yes, very much so. That’s why I feel bad about taking it from Isabelle.” 

“It’s now or never, Mr. Kent.” Lucius let his tone be hard and imperious, while thinking he’d never worked this hard to get himself some rebound sex. “Do you want to explain to the editors of two newspapers that you can’t do this?” 

“I’ll do it, Mr. Fox.” Kent said in a soft voice. 

“Excellent. Let’s go meet with Bruce before he leaves for the day.” Walking toward his office door, Lucius turned when he didn’t hear footsteps behind him. 

“Now?” 

“Yes, Mr. Kent, now. We here at Wayne Enterprises are generally rather busy. You may have the time to stand around and admire my décor or whatever it is that’s holding you back, but I have things to do. Are you coming?” 

“Yes, yes sir.” 

This time, Kent did follow Lucius. It was a short ride up the two floors to where Bruce’s offices were, but Lucius spent the time planning just how big a favor he was getting out of Perry for this. Technically, they were both getting something they wanted out of this deal, but Perry hadn’t mentioned he’d have to browbeat Kent into just meeting Bruce. 

Bruce had a great secretary, Mrs. Henderson, and Lucius coveted her professionalism every time he saw her. He’d asked, but the board wanted a chaperone type near Bruce and his other two young and pretty secretaries. One male, one female, guarded over by the grandmother hen of Mrs. Henderson and her stern gaze. Lucius wanted her efficiency so badly he’d even considered telling the board they didn’t have to worry about Bruce doing anything stupid with his attractive secretaries. 

They would want to know how he could say such a thing, since Bruce maintained such a reputation. Brucie earned that reputation, not maintained it, he wasn’t hiding anything under his shallow playboy exterior, even if nobody ever saw him leave the clubs he went in. With no good way of explaining all that to the board, Lucius had gone back to the secretarial pool. Lucius tried not to stare at Mrs. Henderson as the young male secretary lead them into Bruce’s office. 

“Lucius, what…” Bruce started as his guests entered. 

He stopped talking when he saw Kent, but didn’t immediately go into the idiot persona he used around other people. Interesting. No, not interesting, not interesting at all. Very dull, further evidence of his strange mannerisms, Lucius decided and pressed on. 

“Bruce, this is Clark Kent of the, well, he’s pinch hitting on the _Gotham Gazette_ for six weeks.” Stretching the truth with the reporter was rather different than lying to your potentially dangerous boss. Dangerously stupid, that is, really. Lucius hoped Kent wouldn’t jump in and talk about what he’d been told or his actual roll as the society writer. “I wanted to introduce the two of you, hoping you’d be nice to him. He’s new in town and this could be some great PR for us.” 

“Not that I’m going to write pure fluff and drivel.” Kent found his tongue, and it was barely civil. “I’ll call it as I see it, Mr. Wayne.” 

“You do that.” Bruce snapped at him, before remembering himself and smiling. “I’m an open book, and I’d love to spend time showing you my world.” 

“Great, glad to hear it Bruce.” Lucius jumped in, ignoring the stares that were coming at him. He was also ignoring the something in the air that wasn’t quite tension. Lucius decided he ignored plenty around Bruce, so he could ignore this too. “The dedication ceremony for the new library is at six, so you can take Mr. Kent. He’s new in town, so buy him some supper after and talk about how involved you’ve been in the library.” 

“Me? I don’t read.” Bruce was playing for ignorant, looking at Lucius like he was annoyed. 

Lucius found that irritated him, because for all he didn’t know and ignored, he sure didn’t deserve that look. And if Bruce fired him, he’d have to run the company himself or risk losing his toys for his extracurricular activities, whatever they may be. 

“Bruce, you said the library needed more publicity than it was getting.” Lucius looked at Bruce over the top of his glasses. “If I remember correctly, even Alfred put money into the library.” 

The smile fell off Bruce’s face, but he managed not to incinerate Lucius with his gaze. “It’ll be my pleasure to take Mr. Kent to that.” 

“And supper?” Lucius was pushing it he knew, but he also felt Kent watching him. Did Kent not realize by now that Bruce was the story here? 

“No problem.” Bruce was smiling again, but the look was very hard for Lucius to ignore. “I’ll buy Mr. Kent supper, it’ll give us a chance to talk to each other about his time in Gotham.” 

It wasn’t much, or much more than threatening, but it was a start. Lucius could only do so much, unless Perry expected him to lube Kent up and show Bruce where to put his dick. And that, Lucius decided, was a thought he was going to ignore _and_ make Perry pay for. “I’ll make arraignments for Angelo’s at eight. If Mr. Kent likes Italian?” 

“One of my favorites.” Kent replied in a soft voice. 

“I’ll see you at the library than.” Lucius nodded to both men. 

Fleeing back to his office was a good idea, and Lucius did so. Alfred would be at the library ceremony, managing to make his immaculate and intelligent self disappear into the background. If Lucius was really good, he’d make Bruce promise to take Kent somewhere and have Alfred witness the promise. Whatever Bruce might get up to, Alfred was special to him. 

Lucius wouldn’t involve Alfred in this unless he had to, but he’d use Alfred’s name if it helped him. Names were funny things, and powerful in their own way. Hadn’t Mr. Kent asked if Bruce had agreed to this, not Mr. Wayne or Brucie? Shaking his head, Lucius put it down to remembering wrong. It had been a long day after all, and he still had work to do. 

sB _Sb_ Bs

Reading through Lois’ latest article, Perry wondered why no terrorist had ever forced Lois to learn how to use an apostrophe. Her computer had a grammar check, and a spell check, yet she still guessed at where the punctuation went. She even had internet, so why had she left it to him to find out if Stockholm Syndrome was from Finland or Switzerland? At least when Kent was here, he proofed the articles before Perry got them. When the phone rang, Perry picked it up without looking up. 

“Hello?” 

“Mr. Perry.” The baritone on the other end got Perry’s attention out of the article. “It’s about that project you asked for my help with.” 

“What can I do for you, Mr. Fox?” If ever someone was named appropriately, it was this sly fox. 

“Things have been progressing over the last two weeks, but slowly.” Perry knew this, he got Lucius’ emails often enough. Usually they told Perry to order Clark to write on this or that, so he’d have to be near Wayne. “Unfortunately, Mr. Kent has refused to join in the Thanksgiving celebrations we have planned.” 

“He has family, and it’s a family kind of holiday.” 

“Normally I would agree with you and encourage him to go home. This year I find our experiment would be better suited to him staying in Gotham.” 

“What’s so special about Gotham at Thanksgiving?” 

“Mr. Wayne has taken it upon himself to provide a carnival the day after Thanksgiving, for the children of the unemployed, currently living in Gotham’s shelters. 

“That’s very nice, but Clark has done several pieces about Wayne’s charity work.” 

“Often hinting in those articles that Mr. Wayne has ulterior motives for everything he does.” 

“Cheer up, Lucius, nobody believes Wayne’s smart enough to have ulterior motives.” Perry would add that he didn’t think Wayne could spell ulterior, but neither could Lois and she was pretty smart. 

“Mr. White, that does not ease my mind.” 

“Considering he’s my boss, it doesn’t make me feel any better either.” 

“Back to our original topic, the carnival will show Mr. Kent a side of Bruce that not many get to see. Most of his charity work is in the form of writing checks, but this was his idea. If Mr. Kent were to force an explanation out of Bruce, it would make Mr. Kent more susceptible to Bruce’s finer qualities.” 

“I have to say, Mr. Fox, that I expected our boss to spend two days seducing Kent and the rest of the six weeks shacked up with him.” Perry didn’t actually believe that, expecting Clark to need more than a stiff drink and a pick up line. Should he hold still long enough to hear the pick-up line instead of dashing off to _report_ on a Superman story. 

“I am sure Mr. Wayne could do so, if I were to inform him of the nature of Mr. Kent’s visit.” Lucius answered, voice calm. “Though I would be required to inform Mr. Wayne of whose idea it was, so he does not blame the wrong party.” 

“No need to threaten, however subtly. Send me the details, and I’ll make sure Kent shows up the day after Thanksgiving.” 

“The information is in your inbox. Good day, Mr. White.” 

“Bye, Fox.” Hanging up, Perry saw Lois’ article, still on his computer screen. Why would she end a sentence on a capital letter? How did that even get past the computer’s autocorrect? Minimizing that, Perry went to his email. Yelling at Clark, even over the computer, would give him the energy to tackle Lois’ article. 

sB _Sb_ Bs

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Lucius pulled up _The Daily Planet_ website and found the same article _The Gotham Gazette_ printed on Monday. Clark Kent had a way with words, but this was a special article. His previous articles on his stay in Gotham had hinted at Bruce’s ulterior motives right up front. Then the reader spent the rest of the article looking for signs of Bruce’s evil. Every word was calculated to make people wonder what Bruce was up to, when he actually wasn’t up to anything. Well, nothing the article could prove anyway. 

The after Thanksgiving article seemed amazed at what Bruce had done. Kent had witnessed it all and talked to Bruce and the participants. He’d been unable to find a selfish motive in all of that. When one participant in the carnival had asked why Bruce hadn’t spent the money on giving people jobs, Kent had investigated that. Found out that Bruce had put a cap on the salaries of his executives, so he could hire an additional 2,000 workers W.E. didn’t need. 

Lucius had asked that his name be kept out of it, so he was listed as a W.E. insider. “Whatever people think about Mr. Wayne’s brain, he does have a big heart. Besides, if he’s too dumb to know what PR stands for, why would he do this except because he wants to make people happy?” 

Bruce, it seemed, had been even harder to pin down, because he only had one quote in the article. Kent used it for his final line. “Hard times might make us better people, but so does doing what you can to help. It’s not much, not enough, but it’s something.” 

This was Kent’s first article to be in both newspapers, and Lucius thought it represented a change in Kent’s attitude. Maybe he was seeing Bruce different. Different than what, Lucius couldn’t say, just that Kent had something against Bruce before the transfer. It wasn’t overwork talking this time; Bruce and Kent had met before Lucius introduced them. 

Which made Lucius think about where such a meeting might have occurred. About how tall Kent was, with dark hair and blue eyes, and he seemed to be in good shape, under that baggy suit and those fugly glasses. Lucius was left to idly wonder if Kent’s extracurricular activities involved blue spandex and billionaire spelunkers. Even if he was just daydreaming, thinking about impossible things, Lucius was smart enough not to share those thoughts with anyone. 

sB _Sb_ Bs

Sitting back and rubbing at his eyes, Perry thought about the article before him. The article about the carnival after Thanksgiving had been interesting, but Clark’s latest about Wayne was an outright tearjerker. Running it in the _Planet_ might look like brownnosing the boss, just in time for Christmas bonus decisions, but it was well written and fact based. 

Wayne was offering a million dollars to the charity that got the most donations in time for Christmas. Somebody with a brain had organized the rules and such, but all agreed it was Wayne’s idea. It would be a healthy competition in this time of great need, and people loved to compete. Maybe running it in the _Planet_ would encourage people to give to Metropolis charities, or remind them that the charities were there to help. Pride was important, but so was giving your kids the best Christmas you could. 

There was also the way things were changing in Gotham, or at least in Clark. His early reports on Gotham had been fine, but the ones on Wayne were full of something. Hostility? Bitterness? Most people wouldn’t have seen it, but Perry knew his reporter and knew how Clark wrote. He was usually very optimistic, even as he wrote about terrible crimes. When Clark wrote, the reader could believe in the inherent goodness of mankind, which was probably why Lois’ cynical articles were more popular. 

Gotham was a strange place, strange enough for the darkest hero the world had. Batman, the creature that haunted Gotham, seemed far more deserving of Clark’s vitriol than Wayne. So a person who saw Clark’s anger, might also wonder why Clark acted like he had a reason to hate Wayne. As if the part of Clark that Perry was careful not to see had met part of Wayne that people in his life were careful not to see. Not reporting on his suspicions about Clark were one thing, Clark was a good guy. But the jury was still out on Batman and if he was a good guy or not, though Superman hadn’t tried to stop Batman either. 

Now the articles about Bruce sounded as if Clark was seeing the good in Wayne, and other residents of Gotham. So if Clark could see the good in Wayne, then he could get his rebound sex, opening up the prospects of being bisexual and get back to Metropolis and editing Lois’ articles before Perry had to see them. If he had to see thru instead of through one more time, his head would explode. It counted in America, but the _Planet_ had international readership and standards, damn it! 

sB _Sb_ Bs

The week before Christmas was usually dedicated to shopping, giving to charity and planning how the family was going to get together. This Thursday involved a meteor heading for the planet, one large enough to destroy the planet. The entire planet seemed to come to a standstill to watch the news, watch as Superman launched himself toward it. NASA jumped in, predicting the debris, if the large rock was successfully broken up by Superman, would mostly fall on central Mexico. 

People were surprised at the large, black, menacing Bat-shaped aircraft that left Gotham. News copters tried to follow it, but were outdistanced quickly. A few camera crews, set up to catch the meteor shower in Mexico, instead recorded a dazzling show of aerial skill. The craft danced through the sky, turning large chunks of rock into dust, so nothing large enough to be dangerous landed on the towns below. 

By the time Superman joined in keeping the debris from being too large, the press had named the aircraft the Batwing. Night was falling, and the Batwing got even harder to see, so Lucius was no longer sure it looked like something Bruce had asked him about before. Schematics always looked so different than the finished project anyway. It might take a worldwide emergency to get Batman out of Gotham, so what surprised Lucius was after the meteor shower. 

With the camera crews watching, Superman stopped beside the hovering Batwing and spoke to Batman. The camera couldn’t pick up his words, nor could they focus enough for someone to read his lips, but it was clear Superman was talking to him. Batman didn’t open a window or retract a canopy, but Superman grinned at whatever was said back to him. Batman flew his craft north, while Superman landed to say a few words to the camera. 

Lucius didn’t hear what Superman had to say, as he was thinking about previous encounters recorded between the two men. There had been hostility there, a friction that was just as likely to devolve into fights between them as fights with the enemy. Someone, somewhere had found a way to get those two to talk to each other. Lucius ignored a lot of things in Bruce’s life but the feeling of pride in his chest was hard to ignore. It was stupid to think he’d helped Superman and Batman work together better, since he didn’t know either man, but Lucius still held a feeling of accomplishment. 

sB _Sb_ Bs

The strange thing about Clark Kent, Perry decided, was that he didn’t need rebound sex to get over Lois and her engagement. The six weeks away had done its job on Clark, he was back to smiling and editing Lois’ articles before she sent them to Perry. For that feat alone, Perry was willing to do two favors for Lucius, but he wasn’t going to tell him that. Instead, he was going out into the office Christmas party, and avoid getting under the mistletoe with his future daughter-in-law. 

Tomorrow would be their first Christmas as a family, which would be enough time together. If Perry talked to her while he was as drunk as he planned on getting tonight, Lois would know just how much he loved her, even as infuriating as she could be. Perry finished his fifth or six eggnog, and moved into the main office for a refill. He got his refill, just as the elevator dinged. 

Bruce Wayne strolled out of the elevator as if he owned it, which was obnoxious even if he did own the building. Everyone turned to look, silently staring at their boss. Bruce saw them looking and shrugged, losing part of his swagger. Perry looked to Clark, who was staring at Bruce with a confused expression. When Perry looked back at Bruce, he’d dropped his gaze to play with his cufflinks. 

Clark fought his way through the crowd to stand in front of Bruce, until Bruce had to look up from his cufflink. They stared at each other long enough for Perry to think about kicking Clark in the back of the knee, hoping he’d fall into Bruce’s arms already. Except, Perry thought, it’d probably break his foot. Or not, no reason it should after all. A quick look around showed a bit of mistletoe, on a headband Kitty was wearing. Two steps forward, and Perry grabbed it without anyone noticing, except Kitty. It might have been further attached to her hair than he’d thought. 

The next task was more horseshoes than baseball, but Perry was good at both. Well, when he hadn’t had seven or eight eggnogs, with extra nog. And maybe he aimed for it to land in between their ducking heads, but Clark’s half held out arm was good enough. Clark stared at the headband, face turning red as he saw the mistletoe hanging off of it. He held it out to Bruce though, so they could both stare at the offending plant. 

Eventually, Bruce moved his hand, grabbing Clark on the elbow. Pushing Clark’s hand up, Bruce helped him hold the mistletoe over their heads. Leaning together, they kissed under the mistletoe. It took a minute, but the crowd began to comment, cheer and come back to life. This was probably what ended the kiss, the reminder that they weren’t alone. Wayne whispered something in Clark’s ear and stepped back. Clark nodded eagerly and turned to the crowd. 

“I’m going to leave the party early. I’ll talk to you lot on Monday.” A cheery wave and Clark grabbed his coat before joining Wayne at the elevator. 

Grinning like he’d gone mad, Perry went for another eggnog. He was allowed, since he had the strangest felling he’d saved the world. Or maybe just Christmas, since it was the season for it. 

sB _Sb_ Bs


End file.
